Wiesenthal Centre at the European Parliament

November 8, 2018

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre - Europe partnered with 18 other organizations, led by the European Jewish Association, to discuss the status of Jerusalem and of antisemitism, over two days at the European Parliament.

Attended by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), politicians, multifaith clergy, media and academics, the sessions focussed on setting “red lines” for candidates and parties in the run-up to the 2019 European Parliamentary elections.

Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, spoke of “I.D. Theft of the Jewish Narrative as a Form of Antisemitism” with a power-point on antisemitica on the shelves of book fairs in six Arab countries and at the Frankfurt book fair...

"...We recalled that during a previous presentation at the European Parliament, a British MP present - close to then Prime Minister David Cameron - forwarded to Cameron examples of the Wiesenthal Centre’s findings of Islamist texts translated into English, French, Spanish and German. These were aimed at high schools in Europe with a high density of Arab-origin students. A few weeks later, Cameron responded, he had them banned,” stated Samuels.

The Centre also informed the Parliament of its 80th anniversary programme on the 1938 Evian conference on Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. There and then, 31 delegates explained why their countries would not accept Jews. The only member-state of the League of Nations, among the 32 present, which offered to take up to 100,000 was the Dominican Republic.

In Evian, the world’s answer to U.S. President Roosevelt’s call for a solution was a green light to Hitler, to exterminate 6 million Jews in the Holocaust...

“Remembering and studying these events allows us to draw lessons for contemporary refugee challenges,” concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 609 770 158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).